


Symphony

by autobrightness



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-16
Updated: 2015-01-16
Packaged: 2018-03-07 21:07:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3183185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autobrightness/pseuds/autobrightness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four times people listen to Tsukishima's playlist and the one thing he doesn't expect from it all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Symphony

It doesn’t even happen during a game; Tsukishima slips on a patch of black ice two steps outside of his house and twists his ankle.

**i.**

There's a flurry of expressions on Kageyama's face—shock, confusion, disbelief, and the sour face he makes whenever he's building himself up to talk to Tsukishima.

Tsukishima frowns and slides his headphones off, "What do you want?"

"It'll heal." Kageyama isn't even looking at him. He's staring at the crutches under Tsukishima's arms and at Tsukishima's left ankle, stricken like it's Kageyama's own ankle that's swollen. "You'll be able to play again—"

Kageyama's taking this worse than he did. Tsukishima cuts him off and continues making his way towards the school gate. "Have fun with your freak-quicks. I'll be back—"

"You're coming to practice, right?"

"—in three..." Tsukishima stops and swivels all the way around on one foot. "Why would I go to practice?"

Kageyama doesn't miss a beat and even looks confused for having to provide a reason, "Because you're part of the team."

"And do what?"

"Watch the game," Kageyama says, and Tsukishima realizes he's not kidding. "There's a lot to learn even when you're not on the court. It might not be as fun as being on the court, but you won't be left out." He's completely earnest about it too.

Kageyama’s annoying and everything about him sets Tsukishima off, but there’s something different today. Tsukishima narrows his eyes, "Why do you care so much?"

"Why wouldn't I care?" Kageyama shoots back and then looks down in deep thought, hand on his chin, like he's actually racking his brain for a cohesive reason to present.

Tsukishima beats him to the punch when he realizes what's throwing him off so much.

This isn’t an I’ll-ask-you-nicely-so-please-help-me-pass-my-exam kind of situation. There’s no need for them to work together to overthrow some opposing team, no need to make sure they’re on the same page so Kageyama can read him right and toss the ball over in a pinch.

They’re not even in the gym.

Kageyama has no ulterior motive.

This is Kageyama acting like someone closer on the scale of a friend than an acquaintance-teammate right now and that alone makes Tsukishima feel a lot more unbalanced than when he was practising with his crutches.

"Aren't we late?" Tsukishima says instead. "Daichi-san's going to make you run laps, you know.”

Kageyama looks so surprised Tsukishima just hops past him.

"Whatever. You can probably listen to your music," Kageyama says awkwardly when he falls into stride beside Tsukishima's slow hop-step-hop-step, eyes flicking towards his headphones. "It's what Oikawa-san used to do when he hurt his knee. The coach didn’t let him play for weeks."

"What'd he listen to?"

"Dunno," Kageyama shrugs and hunches a little into himself, frowning, "Never listened to his stuff."

Tsukishima stops again and Kageyama looks up in mild alarm, like Tsukishima's tripped or something, but that's not it.

If they're going to talk... they're going to talk quality.

"This came out yesterday," Tsukishima unwinds the cord from his shoulders slowly, skips around a bit on his music player, and presents his headphones. It feels like he’s bearing way too much at once. “I think you might like it.”

Kageyama's eyes widen and Tsukishima almost takes everything back (forget this; the pain in his ankle’s probably making him think their friendship actually has a chance), but Kageyama reaches out and puts on his headphones gamely. He presses play and goes quiet, one eyebrow quirking. Tsukishima can't tell if it's because Kageyama thinks his taste in music is crap or not, and it irks him to realize he actually cares what Kageyama thinks.

But Kageyama listens the whole way, even when they make it to the gym, even when Yamaguchi looks surprised that Tsukishima bothered to come to practice, and even when the rest of the team bursts into shock at the sight of Tsukishima's crutches.

**ii.**

Kageyama ends up not having to run any laps and Tsukishima attends every practice.

They have a few days off from school for the holidays and with Takeda’s coordination skills, Karasuno is set to have a joint training camp with Nekoma and Fukurodani. Kageyama's actually right and Tsukishima learns a lot from just watching, so he ends up getting his mom to sign the permission slip even though he’s going to spend three days warming the bench and fighting off stray volleyballs hurtling his way with his crutches.

Tsukishima ends up sitting dead-centre at the back of the bus because it has the most aisle space and consequently also right beside Hinata.

"Does it still hurt?" Hinata asks as the bus starts.

"Only when there's weight on it," Tsukishima replies honestly and warily, not eager to get dragged into pointless conversation. "I'm taking a nap." He puts on his headphones and Hinata gives him a curious look, but Tsukishima just closes his eyes and drifts into unconsciousness.

Or, he does for a while, until he gets the feeling that something's not right.

It's been about an hour and a half since they've left. The bus is quiet; Sugawara and Daichi are having a muted conversation in the front row, Chikara is flipping through a magazine a few seats ahead, and everyone else is passed out. Even Nishinoya and Tanaka are asleep.

"What are you doing?" Tsukishima asks when he realizes that, yeah, Hinata is hunched over, but he's definitely not sleeping.

Hinata looks up and Tsukishima blanches when he sees how bad he looks. "Don’t tell me you’re going to throw up."

"No!" Hinata hisses (not) quietly. He lowers his voice, checking to see he didn't wake anyone up, "I don't think so. Sometimes I get nervous, that's all."

Tsukishima raises an eyebrow. "We've played Nekoma and Fukurodani before." And Tsukishima's pretty sure Hinata has friends on both teams.

"I know that," Hinata actually looks exasperated, "It just happens; I don't know. Maybe it’s car-sickness. My phone died and everyone's asleep so my stomach feels funny. It'll go away. You can go back to sleep, Tsukishima."

Hinata goes back into shrinking in on himself and looking uncharacteristically serious and resigned instead of car-sick, which is what makes Tsukishima do it.

He passes his headphones over without looking at Hinata. 

"Are _you_ feeling okay, Tsukishima?" Tsukishima snaps his gaze to Hinata, who's looking at him like he's grown an extra head.

"Never mind," He grits out, but Hinata grabs his hand, fingers curled over his headphones, before he can retract it.

"Wait! Wait!" The traces of sullenness are fading from Hinata's face. "I said that ‘cause you're never just nice to me, but can I listen, really?"

Tsukishima doesn't reply because Hinata's just insulted him, but he also looks way too genuinely happy so he relents.

"Wow, you've got some nice headphones," Hinata hits play, “but what are you going to listen to?”

Tsukishima shrugs, “I’ll go back to sleep.”

Hinata gives him a funny look then swings down to shuffle around in his duffle bag. “We can share,” He holds up a twisted pair of black and white ear-buds. He gets them untangled faster than Tsukishima thinks was possible and hands him the right side. Hinata doesn’t even give back his headphones, just shoves them down and keeps them around his neck. “There.” Then he resumes the song and slumps back down against the chair.

Tsukishima frowns, not even sure he wants to share in the first place, but eventually plugs himself in.

They go two songs before Hinata says quietly, “Thanks, Tsukishima.” The bus passes by a grove of trees, flickers of sunlight dancing across Hinata’s face, before plunging them into the darkness of a tunnel. “Is this why you're always listening to music?"

Tsukishima frowns, “What?”

“Does it calm you down?" Hinata’s voice is muted and in the shadows he looks like an entirely different person. A lot more serious, a lot less scattered.

“Tsukishima?” Hinata prompts at the same time Tsukishima answers, “You’re not the only person who gets nervous.” It’s not like he gets nervous to the degree Hinata does or over the same things. Tsukishima's also pretty sure this isn't just a case of simple nerves (Hinata's too melancholy and serious and only half-decent at lying), but he doesn't comment on it. Maybe some day they'll be able to talk about things other than volleyball and biting at each other, but Tsukishima can give him a break today. "We all experience it differently. Music helps me.”

From the corner of his eye, he can see Hinata squinting at him and Tsukishima feels self-conscious.

It’s different, talking like this, when Hinata’s not pissing him off with over-enthusiasm.  

The song changes and Hinata’s eyes glaze over for a moment, "Huh, you know, I was at Kageyama's house the other day and he was playing this song."

Tsukishima freezes. It's an older song; one of the first he showed Kageyama.

Tsukishima’s not sure if he's embarrassed or not. "It's a good song," he settles on saying.

"Yeah! That’s what Kageyama said too," Hinata beams. The bus jerks and Hinata ends up bumping up against Tsukishima’s shoulder, but doesn’t move away, “I like your music. You know, you really aren’t that bad, Tsukishima.”

And what’s Tsukishima supposed to say to something as honest as that?

**iii.**

Hinata ends up falling asleep soundly and even Tsukishima gets some rest.

They’re the first to reach the training grounds, but when everyone starts unpacking their things and arranging futons, another bus passes by the open windows, the flash of bright red jerseys signalling Nekoma’s arrival.

Instead of going outside or to the gym, Tsukishima’s sent straight to the kitchens to help Shimizu chop onions (“It’s going to take everyone awhile to say hello and set up the gym anyway, Tsukishima-kun,” Takeda says and Tsukishima doesn’t doubt that). By the time Tsukishima ventures into the gym, they’re only fifteen minutes into the first game, Nekoma versus Karasuno, with no sight of Fukurodani yet, so Tsukishima takes a seat on the floor, far away from where a spike might fly at him.

"Tsukki!" Kuroo calls and runs off the court just as he’s rotated out of the current set. He leans against the wall, sliding down until he's sitting on the floor next to Tsukishima and lets out a low whistle. "Ouch, that blows. Bokuto and I were ready to drill you. He’s going to be so disappointed.”

“Where are they?” Tsukishima latches onto the topic because he might like Kuroo, but not enough to give embarrassing explanations.

Kuroo grins like he knows what Tsukishima’s doing, but humours him anyway, “On the way. One of their tires blew out on the highway. Look.” Kuroo flashes his phone, swiping to his messages with a thumb.

The text isn’t even from Bokuto.

It’s from Akaashi and it’s just a single word: _Delayed_.

There’s a picture attached. Fukurodani’s bus is parked at a rest station. Both coaches are crouching by the back tire and in the background, Bokuto looks comically distressed.

“So,” Kuroo says, putting away his phone and stretching out his legs, “What’re you going to teach me today?”

“What are you going on about?”

“I usually teach you blocking, but you’re out of commission,” Kuroo’s eyes flicker towards Tsukishima’s ankle then back at his face, “So teach me something today, Tsukki.” And with the look in Kuroo’s eyes, he’s not going to let this go.

Tsukishima frowns. “I have nothing to teach you.” Yeah, he’s got the whole feinting and trick-your-opponents thing going for him, but it’s nothing Kenma can’t teach Kuroo.

Kuroo actually flicks Tsukishima on the forehead with a finger. Embarrassingly enough, Tsukishima yelps because he’s caught off guard. “What's your prob—!”

“Jeez, Tsukki, you’re thinking a little too hard.” Kuroo’s got two kinds of smiles: the kind that makes your hair stand-on-end and then the kind of smile that lowers people’s defences. He’s deploying the latter one right now and it’s annoying how it’s working. “Hinata and Kageyama must be getting to you; it’s not always about volleyball. Got other hobbies?”

Tsukishima may or may not have a bunch of dinosaur figures in his room and the trivial facts that go along with them in his head, but that’s also another topic he’s not ready to segue into with Kuroo. It’s worked the last two times this week so Tsukishima doesn’t have a hard time saying, “I like music.”

“Oho,” Kuroo raises an eyebrow when Tsukishima takes out his music player. “These are some nice ear-buds.”

“They’re… Hinata’s.”

Kuroo’s other eyebrow joins his first, but he wisely doesn’t say anything besides, “Great, we can share.” Somehow, that’s almost worse, because Kuroo has a little _Aha!_ moment and Tsukishima realizes he’s totally and thoroughly busted and Kuroo probably realizes exactly why he has Hinata’s ear-buds.

“Friends are nice,” Kuroo says absentmindedly, swaying his feet to the beat of the song, eyes on the game. “They come in all shapes and sizes. It’s kind of funny when the ones you think you hate or the ones who annoy you the most end up becoming the ones who have your back no matter what.”

“Spare me the embarrassing speech, Kuroo-san.”

Kuroo laughs suddenly, “We’re definitely friends now.”

“What?” Tsukishima makes a face. “We’re rivals, not friends.”

“Nah, you just stumbled into friendship, Tsukki. Friends can call me embarrassing. Nice music. I’ll ask Kenma if you can borrow one of his games or something when you get bored,” Kuroo launches into a bunch of non-sequiturs Tsukishima can barely comprehend. “Oops,” He says, unapologetic, just as someone calls his name, “That’s my cue. Show me more music later, Tsukki!”

Then Kuroo’s up and back on the court leaving Tsukishima thoroughly bewildered.      

 **iv.**  

Kuroo rotates several more times and continues keeping Tsukishima company. He actually listens to a lot of the same artists and even offers a couple of suggestions that Tsukishima takes note of. They eat through a decent amount of Tsukishima’s playlist, but Kuroo’s on the court when the doors to the gym bang open and Fukurodani makes a dramatic entrance. Well, dramatic entrance sans-Bokuto.

Bokuto walks in dejectedly, with Akaashi right behind him wearing a slightly frazzled and harassed look. Fukurodani is filing silently to one of the spare benches when Akaashi catches sight of Tsukishima from across the court. He taps Bokuto on the shoulder, says something quietly, and then Bokuto zones in on Tsukishima.

The dejection on his face is totally replaced with shock.

Also, Bokuto is totally bee-lining in Tsukishima’s direction.

Tsukishima doesn’t even have time to escape before Bokuto’s crashing down beside him, knees knocking into his (uninjured) leg, “Heeey, Tsukki! What happened?!”  

“An unfortunate accident,” Tsukishima bites out. On the other side of the court, Akaashi resiliently avoids Tsukishima’s glare. “What happened to you guys?”

Bokuto’s shoulder slump and Tsukishima immediately regrets changing the topic. “Our tire went flat and we were stranded for _hours_. Then Akaashi and I went to go get snacks for everyone while Coach went to get a spare tire, but then I bumped into this little old lady in the line-up and she spilled her coffee and I dropped all of our doughnuts,” Tsukishima suddenly realizes why Akaashi looks exhausted. “It was terrible.”

“Hm,” Tsukishima says non-committaly. Bokuto’s a little high-strung, but he’s not a bad person. Tsukishima also can't quickly disappear in the condition he's in. Kuroo’s talk about friends is still fresh in his head when he offers up a, “You guys ended up getting more, right?”

“Uh, well, yeah.”

“Did you pay for them?”

“No, but the cashier had to—“

“Did the old lady burn herself?”

“No, but—“

“Then everything worked out.” Tsukishima doesn’t envy Akaashi at all, but he’ll forgive him this one time. “It’s not like you missed out much.”

Bokuto cocks his head, considering.

Tsukishima sighs. There’s enough battery for a few more songs. “Are you going to let Kuroo-san beat you today?” He starts scrolling through his songlist.

Bokuto makes a face, “Of course not! Never!”

“Here,” He passes over his music player when he finds the song he was looking for. “It’s very… energetic.”

At least Bokuto doesn’t think he’s being weird because he just starts listening, face eerily concentrated. In fact, he goes still for the entire two minutes and fifty-seven seconds.

“Bokuto-san…?”

“Hey! Hey! Hey!” Bokuto points a finger at Kuroo, who’s off the court again and coming up around Tsukishima’s free side. He sits down a lot more calmly than Bokuto did and doesn’t knock into Tsukishima at all. “Just you wait! We’re taking the win today!” He grins and starts humming half a beat off from the song.

Kuroo turns to Tsukishima, “What have you done?”

**+1**

Tsukishima’s music player dies right before he goes to bed and he spends fifteen minutes rifling through his bag for his charger before he realizes it’s probably at home. Tsukishima asks around the room, but no one has one that fits. He still has two more days and a bus ride back home to get through so he makes a mental note to ask the other teams tomorrow.

There aren’t any practice matches on the agenda the next day. It’s a whole day of everyone sharpening their skills, spike after spike, receive by receive, so Tsukishima’s actually going to function as a literal bench warmer. He sleeps in, skips breakfast, and spends an extra two hours in his futon, but there’s only so much novel reading he can take before he figures everyone’s done running outside. He gets up and hops towards the gym. There are only three teams present, but it sounds like there’s a whole crowd inside the gym.

Tsukishima opens the door with one hand, not sure he wants to know what's going on.

Each team is sectioned off, practising spikes and manoeuvres in organized chaos, but that’s not what’s grabbing his attention. It’s the little huddle at one end of the gym where Takeda, Kenma, and Akaashi are standing around a bunch of speakers and a laptop, which is blasting out one of his favourite songs.

“Oh, Tsukishima-kun, good morning,” Takeda beams, “Isn’t it neat? Someone brought speakers with them. Akaashi-kun and Kenma-kun just finished setting it up.”

“We surveyed everyone at breakfast for song requests so it’d be fair,” Akaashi says quietly beside him. Tsukishima peeks over Kenma’s shoulders as he clicks; the playlist is full of… Okay, yeah, it’s really weird, at least a quarter or more of the songs on here are his favourites. “But we compiled a couple of songs you like. Kuroo-san and Bokuto-san said you won’t have to be plugged in alone this way. It also helps keep Bokuto’s mood up.” Akaashi smiles a little ruefully, for Akaashi anyway. “I hope this makes up for yesterday.”

“It’s alright, Akaashi-san,” Tsukishima says automatically, looking around the gym.

Kageyama’s setting up tosses, but mouthing lyrics under his breath. Hinata is hopping to the beat as he waits for his turn to spike and flashes an 100-Watt smile when he catches Tsukishima staring. Bokuto’s singing out loud. Kuroo’s grinning at him from across the gym like the cat that caught the canary.

The gym has a very different and lively attitude all over.

“Oh,” Kenma looks up from his crouch suddenly, “Shouyou said you needed a charger. Did you want it right now?”

“No,” Tsukishima says, “I don’t need it right now.”

**Author's Note:**

> Training camps for everyone! This started because I love Kageyama-Tsukishima interaction, but I couldn’t think about what they might talk about besides volleyball when left on their own. They’re going to be a terrifying combination by second-year.


End file.
